Police: ‘Rape fantasy’ set up on Craigslist behind false report in Fargo

Detroit Lakes Minnesota 511 Washington Avenue 56501

FARGO – A 20-year-old woman who told police she was abducted and raped on Sunday was instead acting out a rape fantasy she arranged with a man she met online, police allege in court records filed Wednesday.

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Mary Kate Gullickson, of Fargo, is charged in Cass County District Court with a single count of false information to law enforcement, a Class A misdemeanor.

In a report filed with the charges, campus police at North Dakota State University claim Gullickson admitted to setting up the mock sexual assault and kidnapping via a posting on Craigslist, an online classified ads website.

She told police she reported the incident as a rape because her boyfriend forced her, the report states.

In a campuswide email early Monday, NDSU police said officers were investigating a report of a man in a blue ski mask forcing a female student into a vehicle in a campus parking lot, sexually assaulting her in a different location and then returning her to the lot.

Police announced Tuesday night they had arrested Gullickson on suspicion of filing a false report.

According to the criminal complaint, a man stepped forward to tell police he was corresponding with a woman the day of the alleged rape who said she was a 20-year-old female who wanted to be picked up off the street, bound with duct tape, forced to have sex, then dropped off where she was found.

Campus police tracked down the post and found the email and phone number connected to it matched Gullickson’s, the police report states.

Showing her iPhone to police, Gullickson had so many messages between her and others she met on Craigslist on Sunday that she could no longer tell which came from the alleged suspect, according to the report.

In more than one message, Gullickson asked for $100 in exchange for sex.

Gullickson is being held in the Cass County Jail. Her first court appearance is set for today.

The Forum Communications News Service is the premier news wire service covering the Upper Midwest, stretching from the oilfields of western North Dakota to the plains of South Dakota and to the shores of eastern Minnesota.
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